(NYT) The brazenness of the apparent duplicity highlights the risks for foreign companies operating in China, where counterfeiting and corruption are still rampant despite repeated government campaigns to crack down.

(Channel NewsAsia) WASHINGTON: Euronet Worldwide Inc ramped up its fight against China's Ant Financial Services Group in trying to acquire MoneyGram International Inc , urging the U.S. government to closely scrutinize the rival Chinese bid saying it raises "significant national security risks."

Reuters: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) has appointed Sheila Bair, the former head of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as an independent non-executive director.

(Bloomberg) China’s central bank is going digital. After assembling a research team in 2014, the People’s Bank of China has done trial runs of its prototype cryptocurrency. That’s taking it a step closer to becoming one of the first major central banks to issue digital money that can be used for anything from buying noodles to purchasing a car.

(Bloomberg) With its harsh anti-narcotics laws and painful history with debilitating opium epidemics in the 19th-century, China wouldn’t spring to mind as a promising market for OxyContin, a painkiller that has been at the center of an opioid addiction outbreak in the U.S. Yet in China, powered by soaring cancer rates and an aging population, OxyContin is turning into a hit. And the drug company behind the brand is giving sales an added boost through an outreach push to physicians and by working with the most powerful of allies—the Chinese government.

Last year, in a three-month pilot called “Cloud Sword,” we improved our data modeling to increase the accuracy in finding and deleting listings for counterfeit products. We also improved our network DNA source-tracing to more effectively crack down on counterfeit sellers and their entire supply chain, from upstream to downstream. At the same time, we increased our data quality, enhancing the management of leads for cases we bring to the authorities.The pilot program involved 11 cities in Zhejiang Province. We provided 385 leads to the Zhejiang Province Economic Investigation Team, leading to the arrest of 300 people under 169 separate cases, involving goods valued at RMB816 million.

(Sina.com, in Chinese) A large number of Bitcoin "mines" in Sichuan mountains, where electricity is cheap. Data show that from 2015 onwards, Sichuan bit coin machine sales will rush to be the first in the country, accounting for nearly 30% of the total

(China Daily) US drug enforcement officials are praising China's ban of the opioid carfentanil, which is 10,000 times as potent as morphine and is sometimes used as a tranquilizer for elephants, and three related synthetic opioids. Yu Haibin, director of the Office of the National Narcotics Control Committee, told The Associated Press that China's ban showed its "attitude as a responsible big country" and that "it will be a strong deterrent".

(SCMP/The Guardian) The City regulator is investigating HSBC over potential breaches of money laundering rules after concerns raised last year by the anti-crime monitor installed in Britain’s biggest bank.

(Medscape) Preliminary evidence from two case reports suggests that a history of psychosis should not exclude a patient with severe depression from receiving ketamine in a clinical setting, researchers say.

(Clin Toxicol via Erowid) In the last decade there has been a worldwide surge in the recreational abuse of novel psychoactive substances, particularly amphetamine derivatives and synthetic cannabinoids. Synthetic opioids such as AH-7921, MT-45, and U-47700, with structures distinct from those ever used therapeutically or described recreationally, have also recently emerged.

(London School of Economics) China has achieved phenomenal growth over recent decades, and its banks are now among the biggest in the world. Many are aggressively expanding overseas as the domestic economy slows, and in support of increasingly international ambitions of Chinese businesses. But, as they venture abroad, they are falling foul of regulations, especially anti-money laundering (AML) controls, indicating a pressing need for renewed focus on this issue.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Vatican authorities froze more than two million euros in cases of suspected money laundering in 2016 as part of Pope Francis' drive to clean up the finances of the Holy See, its chief magistrate said on Saturday.

(NYT) ATHENS — During seven years of a grinding economic crisis, Dimitri Tsamopoulos has lost at least half the clients from his once bustling tax consultancy. But in the past few months, business has jumped, not because the Greek economy is finally recovering but because it is falling even deeper into the abyss.

We estimate that the value of international and domestic trade in counterfeit and pirated goods in 2013 was $710 - $917 billion. We estimate, that in addition to this, the global value of digital piracy in movies, music and software in 2015 was $213 billion.

(FORBES) E-commerce is now global. The geographic boundaries separating the spheres of marketplaces like Amazon, Tabao, TMall, and JD, have dissolved very rapidly, and now merchants in the U.S. have direct access to customers in places like China, a

(Bradenton News) U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and other lawmakers Tuesday introduced the newest version of the Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention, or STOP, Act as part of effort to restrict the flow of powerful synthetic opioids into the country via the U.S. Postal Service.

(SecuringIndustry.com) A bill has been reintroduced in the US that would hinder the production of counterfeit electronics in China and other countries. The Secure E-waste Export and Recycling Act (SEERA) is a bill that aims to control the export of electronic waste (e-waste),

(Confectionary News) Chinese police recently seized 300,000 counterfeit chocolate pieces during the 2017 Lunar New Year worth around 700 RMB ($102) per box, after a wedding candy store owner received complaints from local consumers.

This blog brings together the most interesting stories I’m reading about global criminal networks that run through China.

An illicit economy has been flourishing in the shadows of China’s rise. Money launderers, counterfeiters and drug dealers take advantage of the vast tides of money and goods that move through China, piggybacking on the legal infrastructure of banking and trade to move contraband.

While criminal networks have successfully globalized, policing remains a deeply national function.